Katelynn Richardson on August 14, 2023
Hunter Biden’s lawyers wrote in a court filing Sunday night that the terms of his plea deal and pretrial diversion agreement were “largely dictated” by Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors.
The deal, rejected by Judge Maryellen Noreika, would have had Biden plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and enter a diversion agreement allowing him to avoid jail time for a felony gun charge. Noreika’s questioning during the July 26 hearing brought to light a section of the diversion agreement that included a promise of broad immunity for any crime referenced by the attached statement of facts, which outlined payments Biden received from his business dealings in China, Ukraine and Romania.
“[A]s is customary in negotiated resolutions, prosecutors (and not the Defendant or his counsel) proposed and largely dictated the form and content of the Plea and Diversion Agreements,” Hunter Biden’s lawyers told the judge in a filing Sunday night. “This is true with respect to the form in which the documents were presented to the Court (i.e., as two separate and independent agreements), as well as the express
language of paragraph 15 of the Diversion Agreement (the so-called immunity provision). Throughout the settlement process the Defendant and his counsel negotiated fairly and in good faith with the prosecutors.”
Moreover, Hunter Biden’s lawyers asserted that “the parties have a valid and binding bilateral Diversion Agreement.”
His lawyers also noted their understanding of the scope of immunity being offered—a detail the parties disputed during the hearing—was informed by prosecutors’ “written and oral communications” during negotiations.
“The Defendant’s understanding of the scope of immunity agreed to by the United States was and is based on the express written terms of the Diversion Agreement,” they continued. “His understanding of the scope of immunity agreed to by the United States is also corroborated by prosecutors’ contemporaneous written and oral communications during the plea negotiations.”
Prosecutors said in a motion Friday that a trial is likely in Hunter Biden’s case, describing plea deal negotiations as “at an impasse.”
“The Government now believes that the case will not resolve short of a trial,” they wrote in a court filing.
U.S. Attorney David Weiss, the prosecutor who has been investigating criminal allegations against Hunter Biden, was also appointed as special counsel in the case Friday.
Hunter Biden’s Lawyers Say DOJ ‘Largely Dictated’ Terms Of Sweetheart Plea Deal
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